In June 2021, during the regional elections, not a single leader of the LREM list had managed to win. A year and a half later, the president’s majority, with the help of conventions, is in the process of capturing the presidency in another region. Already at the end of November, Renaud Muselier at the head of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (Paca) had joined the Renaissance, a year after his departure from the Republicans (LR). A nice catch for the presidential camp, at the same time as a big disavowal for the right wing.
Since the unexpected resignation of Jean Rottner (LR) as president of the Grand Est region, announced on 20 December and effective on Friday 30 December, this scenario looks set to happen again. His very likely successor, current First Vice President Franck Leroy, is indeed affiliated with the presidential majority party Horizons, created by former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. The mayor of Épernay (Marne), already in office, will be the candidate of the regional majority, predominantly LR, to officially succeed Jean Rottner in the elections scheduled for January 13.
Feverish LRs ahead of Horizon’s advance
“We are going from a president who is a member of Valérie Pécresse’s campaign team to a president who is a member of Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team. This inevitably changes the situation”cheers the president of the pro-Macron opposition group “Centrists and Territories”, Christophe Choserot. “Éric Ciotti and Laurent Wauquiez played on the phone to keep their troops and prevent another region from falling. The discussions were very difficult to get them to swallow that it would be a Horizons president. They made him promise not to plant the flag of the presidential majority in the Grand Est”says the city council member, member of the board of Renaissance.
Indeed, for five years Jean Rottner had been able to maintain the cohesion of his majority, while many of his vice-companions joined the President of the Republic over the months. It is now Valérie Debord, as president of the regional majority, who is responsible for stemming the bleeding from leaders while calming the tenors LR. ” No merger is envisaged between our regional majority and the representatives of the presidential majority.” assures this former member of Valérie Pécresse’s campaign team.
The Macronists’ strategy to engulf the right wing
“Only the vote on the budget remains the decisive criterion for setting the boundaries between a majority and an opposition”, assesses the elected LR. The 16 Macronist regional council members admittedly did not vote for the region’s budget and are officially in the opposition. But they plan to vote for Franck Leroy. “If he wants to expand his majority, we would like to discuss it”, pushes Christophe Choserot into this perspective.
This infiltration strategy goes through Horizons, a privileged gateway to the presidential camp for LR officials who disagree with the right-wing orientation of their new party leader, Éric Ciotti. Incessant transfers that correspond to “a national political reality”according to Renaud Muselier, the president of the Paca region, who has already crossed the Rubicon: “Local elected officials do not comply with LR’s stunt strategy and turn a little more away from it at each new stage of this regression. Regional presidents are no exception to the rule. »
Pays de la Loire, next region on the list of the majority?
“The great strength of our majority is that it has succeeded in overcoming the traps set at national level without this changing our identity as a European and liberal right.”replies Valérie Debord. “The Ray of Political Recomposition Still Works”having fun, confident, the mayor of Horizons of Reims and member of the regional majority Arnaud Robinet, to use an expression dear to Édouard Philippe.
In the Grand Est, the mayor of Metz and the vice-president of the regional council François Grosdidier left the LR, as did the president of the Pays de la Loire region Christelle Morançais. So many potential new recruits to the Macron camp, according to Renaud Muselier, who predicts a political cycle of “clarification” : “Given the ideological porosity of the LR with the RN, the defectors will go crescendo! »
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“A Democratic Robbery”
Laurent Jacobelli
RN deputy for Moselle, chairman of the “RN and related” group in the Grand Est regional council, candidate to succeed Jean Rottner
“Of the four candidates in the second round of the 2021 regional elections, the Renaissance candidate came last (12%), while I got almost 27% of the vote. This is proof that there is a massive rejection of Emmanuel Macron’s project in the Grand Est. And now we have a Horizons president who defended the same project in the presidential election. The ultra-minority Macronists are carrying out a democratic hold-up made possible by Jean Rottner’s rapprochement with the president’s majority.”
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